


A Cold Winter's Day

by MushinryuNinjutsu



Category: Touhou Project
Genre: Advertising, Alka-Seltzer, Backstory, Campbell's Chicken Noodle Soup, Casual, Gen, Influenza, Medicine, Pills, Sick Character, Winter
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-12
Updated: 2016-11-12
Packaged: 2018-08-30 14:00:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,330
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8535922
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MushinryuNinjutsu/pseuds/MushinryuNinjutsu
Summary: Renko is caught with the flu and its up to Maribel to find the right medicine to administer her with.  However, she was brought upon a distortion in the apartment halls as she was about to leave to the store, forcing her to Tokyo, Japan.  Can she find the medication and bring it back in time before its too late?





	

**Author's Note:**

> Warning: This One-Shot contains advertising on actual products that exist in real life. If said products do not work in reality as they are intended to do so, then I am not responsible for any lawsuits that condone such actions. Please sue the product makers if such things happen, okay?

_“Cough cough.”_

The brown-haired individual was lying on her comfortable bed, wrapped in a blanket as she was maintaining warmth upon herself in the cold room she stayed in.  Her black mushroom hat hung near the corner of her right, helping her stave off the moonlight that was trying to shine her eyes.  The heating system in the apartment complex area she and her friend stayed at and maintained rent together had temporarily broken down and the landlord told the residents that it was going to be fixed by the end of this week.  The timing when it broke had never been better, for a cold winter wind had blown through Kyoto, causing many to stay indoors and hole up.

Despite their efforts in staying warm, some of the residents caught the flu from the deafening cold that rolled through the entire city.  She was one of them, to which she remained indoors for two day, trying to recover from the sickness she had.  Her friend had been trying her best to help her in recovering in keeping her warmth, but nothing seemed to be working.  Coughing and sneezing once more, she reached for a napkin, blew her nose, and threw it in the trash can near her bed.

A blonde young woman wearing a black jacket over her purple dress and a French mob cap walked in with some orange juice on one hand, while a small space heater with another.  Given that the two were both low on cash, she was tiringly surprised that her friend had enough money to buy a heater.  Placing the cup on the drawer beside her left, while plugging the heater on the electrical outlet near the bed, she turned the knob to max, hot air beginning to emulate from the small machine.  She could feel the warm air blowing through her, despite the fact that she did not want to let go of the blanket just yet.

“Are you all right, Renko,” the blonde woman asked her, worried about her current state of health.

“Y-yeah, I’m fine, Merry,” Renko replied, lightly coughing.

“Here, take this.  You’ll feel better in no time after drinking it.”

Her friend, who she maintained rent expense with, Maribel Hearn, had went somewhere for some time.  Where she went to was a question she wanted to ask because she was gone for exactly five hours, fifty-three minutes, and forty-two seconds.  Said friend handed took out a small box, took out a sheet of blue and red pills, popped one of them out, and gave her a blue pill, as well as handing her the cup of orange juice.  Seemingly not having time to question what kind of medicine it was, she took the pill and cup, placed it in her mouth, and drank it down.

Although Renko was feeling a bit drowsy from the medicine, her head seemed to have cleared a bit, allowing her to scoot back onto the bed with the blanket slightly lowered from her body, she saw her friend pull a chair up to the bed.

“H-how did you have the money to get everything,” she asked Maribel as her friend sat on the chair near her.

Maribel situated herself comfortably on the computer chair, looking at Renko.

“I…  Had help from someone I knew long ago,” she responded, sighing in relief that her friend was making a slow recovery from her state thanks to the medicine.

“Really…  Who’s this friend of yours?”

“Hmm, why ask?”

“Because you were gone for so long, I began to worry about your wellbeing…”

Maribel slightly smiled, realizing that she was gone for so long after looking through the window, which she confirmed that fact.  Judging from the sunlight replaced by the darkened night, she really was out for quite a while, trying to find medicine to cure her dear friend.  She had every right to worry about her and now, she owed her an explanation on what she was up to.

“I’ve had quite the adventure, you see,” she began explaining to her bedridden friend.  “Hours ago, I was heading off to the store when…”

 

…She walked into a distortion within one of the halls of the apartment.  Curiosity got the better of her, so she decided to investigate on where it would lead her to.  Although Renko questioned if it was still present, Maribel reassured her that it was gone by the time she came back from her trip.

This distortion apparently led her to the city of Tokyo, Japan, to which the residents too seemed to be facing a similar, but milder problem than Kyoto.  She arrived near an apartment complex that was smaller than where they were staying at near a balcony that had numbered doors to the left.  Knowing that essentially nothing around her viewpoint to the street, she wondered where exactly in this city did she arrive in.

The blonde-haired foreigner looked back and saw that this distortion she had curiously wandered into disappeared.  Her emotions quickly changed from curiosity to a mix between desperation and shock, realizing that she might not be able to return back to her friend.  She dropped to her knees on the floor, her emotions beginning to fluster within her.

 _I shouldn’t have walked into it when I’m in a hurry to buy Renko some medicine,_ she thought, looking at the numbered doors behind her, regathering her thoughts.  _No, now’s not the time to panic.  I should probably get some help going back to Kyoto…_

She advanced to the apartment complex, walking up to every door, knocking at them while facing the cold.  Assuming that it was around 12 or 1 pm, she knew that most of the residents of this place were gone.  She persistently knocked at each door, eventually arriving at an apartment door numbered ‘209.’  Like her previous attempts, she knocked at the door and waited.

“Hold on just a minute, I’m coming,” a male’s voice emulated behind the door.

Maribel’s mood began to brighten after finding out that someone was behind the door.  It swung open, revealing a mildly stocky individual that wore a kendogi and a hakama and was as tall as her bedridden friend.  He looked at the blonde woman, confused of who she was.

“Uhh,” he confusingly began, “can I help you, ma’am?”

She was emotionally frozen as she saw him, recognizing that he seemed to resemble someone she knew from long ago.

“Ummm, if you have no business her-”

She launched herself forward, hugging him.  She was surprised at how warm he was.  Taken by surprise, the man almost stumbled back, holding himself as she embraced him.

“I finally found you, Eiji-Kun,” she announced, holding him tightly.

“W-what?”

She held onto the embrace for a while, to which Eiji shook in vain.  Cold air began entering in his living area, to which he slowly scooted to the door.

“If you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to shut the door,” he insisted Maribel, “it’d be a shame if I compromised the house to the cold…”

“Oh…  Can I stay for a while,” she responded, I have no idea where I’m at and I need help.”

“O-of course you may…”

She let him go, to which he shut the door behind her.  As he was securing the door from the cold, she walked forward for a bit, looking at the man’s apartment.  Some of what seemed to be his belongings remained yet to be unpacked, for they were still in boxes.  One box that seemed to be recently opened on the sofa intrigued her, drawing her to it.  As she was peering in what was inside, Eiji made his way to the kitchen that was located to Maribel’s right.

“Do you need something hot to drink,” he asked her, assuming that she must have been outside for quite some time.  “It must be very cold out there, after all.”

“Yeah, sure,” she told him, looking at him so suddenly.  She moved to the kitchen counter, staring at him as he took out a tea kettle and filled it with water, then placed the lid on it and lowered the set onto the stove.  He switched the heat on the appliance, shuffling to his cupboard to take out some powdered hot chocolate mix.

He turned around, placing it on the counter between him and Maribel, just noticing that she was deeply entranced by him.

“D-don’t stare at me like that,” he stated to her, beginning to blush.  “It’s embarrassing, you know?”

“Ah, I’m sorry,” Maribel responded, eyeing her gaze away from him.  “You just reminded me of someone I knew back in middle school…”

“Really…  He must have been a good friend back then, I suppose.”

“Mhmm, he really was…”

Maribel couldn’t believe that this man she thought was the Eiji she knew back then.  Then again, it has been well over five years since they’ve met one another.  She was slightly saddened by this as he opened the container of hot chocolate mix.  Still, she needed help with finding some medicine for Renko, which she was about to open her mouth and state her business when he was going to say something, causing her to retreat a bit.

“What brings you here,” he asked her, placing the lid beside the container and went back to his cupboard to bring out some coffee mugs.  “I know that I haven’t gotten half my stuff unpacked, but I’m working on it at the moment.”

“I’m looking for some medicine for my friend,” she answered, smiling as he placed one of the empty mugs in front of her.  “But I do not know this city well, considering that I’m a foreigner.”

“So, you’re in need of a guide to bring you to the nearby convenient store in order to obtain some over-the-counter medication, then?”

“That sounds about right…  Can you take me there?”

He placed one of his hands to his chin, thinking about it.  He did have some things to buy there, specifically when his fridge was empty at the moment.  As he placed his chin down and was about to give his answer back to her, the tea kettle began to squeal, blowing out hot steam from its nose.

“Ah, the water’s ready,” he unintentionally answered, moving back to the kettle to grab it with a kitchen cloth.  “Could you pour some powder mix into the mugs?  I’ll answer once we share a drink with each other.”

“Mmm, sure.”

 

“So you two shared a drink of hot chocolate with one another at the apartment he stayed in,” Renko recalled to Maribel, who began to slip her arms out of the jacket she was wearing.  “What happened afterwards?”

“We chatted for a while, catching up on old times,” Maribel began explaining to her, placing her arms now onto her lap.  “He then agreed to go with me to the grocery store to buy the medicine I sought after, though I’m not sure if it was the right one.”

“Can I take a look?”

“Sure.  Here’s the box.”

Maribel took out the small medicinal pillbox from the jacket, handing her the object.  The box read in English that it was Alka-Seltzer pills and that it was to be administered to people who caught a cold or flu, either on day or night depending on the color.  Renko noticed that one sheet of pills was missing.

“Did he take one just in case if he too became sick from the cold?”

“Yes he did.  He also bought some supplies for me to administer for your health.”

“Huh…  That explains the orange juice then...  Anything else he got us?”

“Five Campbell’s Chicken noodle soup cups and this heater that’s staving the cold away from us at the moment...”

“I see…”

Whoever her friend was, he must have gone through a deal to care for two strangers, despite knowing one of them well.  She coughed a little, bringing Maribel close to her.

“You shouldn’t move so much, considering that you’re sick at the moment,” Maribel told Renko, taking the box away from her hands and placing it on the drawer.  “Get some rest.  I’m sure that you’ll become better in no time.”

Renko nodded, feeling ever drowsy from the medication administered to her.

“Will you tell me more about what happened later,” she asked her friend, holding her hand.

“Of course, I will,” Maribel warmly responded, noticing that Renko had drifted away into her own dreams.

Renko kept a tight grip on her one and only friend for a while, to which her grip slowly loosened.  Maribel slowly stood up, not disturbing her friend, and leaned back onto the chair.  She stared at the ceiling and sighed in relief.   She shouldn’t have left her old friend so suddenly after she cooked purple rice for him to repay him back for his kindness.  Although getting back to Kyoto seemed hopeless, the same distortion that brought her to that apartment appeared before her once more, giving her an opportunity to get back to Renko and her apartment complex without paying for a bullet train ticket.

Although Maribel’s old friend, now found living in Tokyo, Japan, had not remembered her from middle school, she was glad that he was still ever altruistic, despite now having a warrior-like personality.  Nevertheless, she should have given her real name to him instead of a nickname she wished to go by if she planned on changing her name at all.  Still, she couldn’t wait to introduce him to Renko in the upcoming Higan Festival in three months in order to scout out for more members for their Sealing Club, despite the fact that he no longer was in college.

 _So, there really are others that actually have powers like us,_ she thought, cracking a smile, pulling Eiji's black jacket off the chair and placed it on top of her body.  _I’m just glad that the person I met today was someone I once knew long ago…_


End file.
